Life Satisfaction and Perception of Happiness among University Students

Abstract

The aim of this essay has been the evaluation of three orientations towards happiness: pleasure, meaning and engagement, as well as their relation to life satisfaction and the perception of happiness in a sample of 320 university students. The results show that the most used kind of orientation towards happiness is pleasure, followed by meaning, and finally engagement. It has also been found that pleasure is the orientation most closely associated to happiness while engagement seems to be more related to life satisfaction. These findings aim to the distinction between the concepts of happiness and life satisfaction and lead the attention to the actions which can improve the levels of happiness.El objetivo del presente trabajo ha sido la evaluación de tres orientaciones hacia la felicidad: placer, implicación y significado, y su relación con la satisfacción vital y la percepción de felicidad en una muestra de 320 estudiantes universitarios. Los resultados muestran que el tipo de orientación hacia la felicidad más utilizado es el placer, seguido del significado y en tercer lugar la implicación. También se ha encontrado que el placer es la orientación que más se asocia a la felicidad y la implicación se relaciona más con la satisfacción vital. Estos hallazgos apuntan hacia la distinción entre los conceptos de felicidad y satisfacción vital y dirigen la atención hacia las actuaciones que pueden mejorar los niveles de felicidad.Palabras clave: felicidad, satisfacción vital, placer, significado, implicación.

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“…Nevertheless, this study does not prove this proposition. The results support Martin et al (2010) although they have differentiated between pleasure and life satisfaction. According to them, that hedonic behavior will influence a pleasure, not life satisfaction.…”

An online optimism intervention reduces depression in pessimistic individuals.

“…Test-takers rate the degree to which items—such as “For me, the good life is the pleasurable life,” “I am always very absorbed in what I do,” and “My life has a lasting meaning”—apply to them on a scale ranging from 1 ( not like me at all ) to 5 ( very much like me ). OTH scales have high reported internal consistencies (αs all greater than .70) and significant positive correlation with both life satisfaction and state happiness (Peterson et al, 2005; San Martín, Perles, & Canto, 2010). In the current sample, the average Cronbach’s alpha across four sampling times was .85 for the Meaning subscale, .80 for the Pleasure subscale, and .69 for the Engagement subscale.…”

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“…For example, Martin et al . () provided an excellent review of the psychological literature on happiness and investigated the nature of student happiness, which might be explained in three distinctive forms. This study attempts to concentrate on identifying and then comparing satisfaction, or rather desire satisfaction, with happiness.…”